Upper Perkiomen Schools, Teachers Reach Tentative Contract Agreement

The Upper Perkiomen School District and its 182 teachers reached a tentative contract agreement during a 5-1/2-hour negotiating session Tuesday night, officials said.

Officials from the district and the Upper Perkiomen Education Association declined to detail the pact until it is ratified.

The agreement came during the sixth meeting between the groups and the second with state-appointed mediator Jill Leeds Rivera, said Assistant Superintendent George Bonekemper.

Bonekemper said he thought the union would ratify the contract during the next two weeks and the school board would likely vote on it during its May 6 meeting.

Lew Powell, a field representative for Pennsylvania State Education Association, said work still needs to be done on the agreement.

"We still have to finalize the language and salary schedules," he said. "I suspect it will take two weeks before we can get it before our people."

Bonekemper would not release any portions of the pact, citing the agreement with the union.

"They wanted a number of years; we wanted a number of years," he said. "I'm afraid if we give that out it looks like someone won and someone lost, and that isn't the idea. I think everyone wins."

Bonekemper said the district has never had a teachers' strike. He said the sides could have gone to fact-finding April 11 if agreement wasn't reached.

The district's current contract, which expires Aug. 31, gave the teachers a 10.7 percent increase in the first and second years and 10.8 percent in the last year. It was reached during early-bird negotiations in 1989.

The district attempted early negotiations during these talks without success. Those talks centered on an annual raise of 4 percent, officials said.

Bonekemper said district officials were very pleased with the way a new state law assisted them in the talks.

The law, which is known as Act 88, sets deadlines for the boards and teachers to advance through negotiations. If districts did not settle by Feb. 25, the sides were required to go to mediation. If mediation was unsuccessful, the unions and school boards were able to demand fact-finding, which had needed the approval of the mediator before the state law passed.

"Both parties are very happy that a resolution has been reached," Bonekemper said. "We found Act 88 to be very helpful."